Finally, It's Over: Avalanche 4, Blackhawks 3

Clock Strikes Midnight

Double-overtime Loss Eliminates Hawks

May 14, 1996|By Robert Markus, Tribune Staff Writer.

It took the Blackhawks a long time to die, but when the end came late Monday night at the United Center, the suffering was just about to begin. The Colorado Avalanche, getting the winning goal from defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh 5 minutes 18 seconds into the second overtime, scored a 4-3 victory over the Hawks and sent them home for the summer.

"I know there's a lot of not very happy guys in our locker room right now," said Hawks coach Craig Hartsburg. "But they can all hold their heads high. I know one thing: I'm not disappointed in this hockey team at all. It played with its heart, and they gave us everything they had."

An emotional Jeremy Roenick, who assisted on two of the Hawk goals, waved to the crowd of 21,356 after the traditional postseries handshake and was trying to stifle tears in the locker room afterward.

"A lot of people counted us out," he said, "but we battled back and gave it all we had."

"It was a great series," said defenseman Gary Suter, "but it's no fun to lose, no matter how you lose. It just sucks that we're on the short end of the stick."

The Avalanche, which won the Western Conference semifinal series four games to two, goes on to meet the winner of the Detroit-St. Louis series, and Hartsburg thinks they'll win it.

"They're a good hockey team," said the coach. "They've got some great players and they're healthy. I think that club can win the Stanley Cup and I think right now on our side they're the favorite."

The Hawks went into this series thinking they could win the Stanley Cup, but unquestionably the loss of Tony Amonte in Game 3 was, if not a killing blow, at least a serious setback.

The Hawks, even with Amonte out and Chris Chelios hurting, gave the Avalanche all they could handle, carrying four games into overtime and winning twice.

They appeared to be out of this one, trailing 3-2 with just a minute to play, when Joe Murphy got the tying goal with the Hawks using six attackers.

"We went down," said Hartsburg, "but we went down swinging."

But the Avalanche swung too many big sticks for the Blackhawks. They attacked in waves in overtime and only another standout performance by Ed Belfour in goal kept them from winning it earlier.

"Ed Belfour played an unbelievable game and kept us in it," said defenseman Keith Carney. Finally Ozolinsh, a defenseman collecting his own rebound off the crossbar in a virtual sea of players, batted in the winning goal.

"It looked as if the puck was lying on the ice and it didn't look like anyone was going to get to it," said Carney. "The guy made a great effort to get to the puck. I think he was on the ice when he batted it in."

Valeri Kamensky, who had scored twice in Saturday night's Game 5 victory for the Avalanche, had two more Monday, including what appeared to the game-winner in the third period.

The Hawks had entered the period leading 2-1 thanks to goal by Denis Savard and Bernie Nicholls, but Jeff Shantz had taken a roughing penalty as the teams were going off the ice after the second period. Joe Sakic made him pay with a power-play goal to tie it early in the third. Then Kamensky scored again after a Claude Lemieux steal with just under 13 minutes left.

"When they scored (Sakic's) goal it gave them some life," said Hartsburg, "and they took the lead, but again our team showed what it's all about. They scratched and clawed and tied it up."